Griffith Library held its inaugural Hack-a-thon event this year, where Griffith students were given 30 hours to work in a group to develop an app.

One of the students who participated was Ian Murnane, who has since graduated with a Bachelor of Information Technology and a Bachelor of Multimedia.

While Ian has left Griffith University behind, he certainly hasn’t stopped creating apps.

Enter the Android app Where’s That Bus. it was developed by Ian, and fellow Griffith University graduate Ferguson McBryde.

The app, which covers the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast, allows a user to see exactly where a bus is at any given time. It provides an ETA to within 30 seconds.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the desire to create Where’s The Bus came from the graduates’ own experiences.

‘We were students on student budgets, so we relied on public transport, but we were never able to see when buses would arrive,’ said Mr McBryde.

Mr Murnane soon realised the data they needed was already online and the app took shape.

‘I started to get information like GPS coordinates out of the Google Packet,’ he said. ‘Eventually we ended up with an app that allows you to actually see the buses driving around.’

Users can access the information by punching in their regular route or stop number.

The results will be displayed on a map along with real time information about the bus’ arrival. Thanks to feedback from fellow Griffith students, there’s also the option to bookmark favourites and see the direction of travel.

‘The information at the bus stop could say the next service is five minutes away, but you can check the app and see if it’s already gone past or running late,’ said Mr Murnane.

So during the 30-hour Hack-a-thon at the Gold Coast campus library last month, they created an app that provided students with an easier way to plan their degree.

They took the program and courses information in the Degree Planner and presented it in a more interactive format.

Instead of clicking through each course to see the details, you can simply hover over the course to see the course information.

Their app also allows you to share your plan with fellow students. Because let’s face it – it’s super important that you and your BFFs do the same courses, in the same Trimesters so you can all finish Uni together.

Our Hack-a-thon judges were so impressed with the app, they awarded the guys first prize – which was a whopping $2000.

Are you curious to see what a group of talented Griffith Uni students can achieve in 30-hours with nothing but a laptop, open access API’s, pizza, and Red Bull?

Of course, you are. We all like to know what genius looks like, right? That’s why we made a video in collaboration with Damien, Joaquin and Joshua to showcase their app.

A huge congrats to all participants who worked their behinds off and pumped out some amazing work!

The event kicked off with guest speaker, Daniel Ngo from Entrepreneur Haus (check out Daniel’s speech on Facebook). The students were given a short brief and let loose for 30 hours to develop an innovative and creative app.

There was yawning, there was napping, there were odd smells… but nothing an emergency supply of toothbrushes and toothpaste couldn’t fix. The energy drinks were flowing, the brains were pumping and the students created some amazing work and learnt some valuable lessons. “I learnt that the presentation is just as, if not more important, as the product itself” said one student. Another student loved the real world experience “where like-minded people gather and work towards a common goal”.

Congratulations to our innovative first prize winners. Taking home $2000 was Damien Robinson, Joaquin Ramirez Reyes and Joshua Murchie. They blew the judges away with their creative answer to planning your degree and subject choices.

Taking out second prize and $1000 was Jaden Vaniersel, Ian Murnane, Harley Jarrett. They built an app allowing you to share locations, events, study tips and a very helpful assignment countdown clock – what student doesn’t need that?!

Best User Interface and $500, went to Harrison Croaker, William Fischer and Carl Humphries for their ‘M8te’ design.

Thank you to Greg Phipps, our very own alumni and Technical Program Manager, Google Maps, and Leigh Ellen Potter, Senior Lecturer, School of ICT, who provided some wise words to the participants. Their videos provided relief and inspiration during their short breaks.

Shouting huge congrats to Joshua Murchie who took out first prize in the Hack-a-thon App Idea competition and just walked away with a hefty $1500!

There were hundreds of submissions and some brilliant ideas. Now you have the chance to turn those ideas into something real. Sign up for the Hack-a-thon weekend and win part of a huge $3500 prize pool!

About Josh

Josh is studying a Master of IT and about to begin a dissertation with a technology innovation education theme and is a current student ambassador for the Mayor of the Gold Coast. He is also the co-founder and president of the Griffith Uni Start-up Entrepreneurs Club, where they promote collaboration and entrepreneurship in the student community.

Josh was frustrated with planning out his degree; which course to take when, without missing pre-requisites or having to wait a trimester for the next offering. His idea focussed on creating an awesome timetabling experience for the user and easing student frustrations.

More Prizes

Second prize of $750 went to Tahnee Webb, studying a Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her fantastic ‘CramSession’ idea is a great social enhancer allowing students to collaborate. Third prize of $500 went to Christian Frost, studying Master of Philosophy in the school of Human Services and Social Work. He had an innovative idea to ease parking and transport issues around campus.

The Hack-a-thon Weekend

Are you a totally tech savvy student? Maybe you’re involved in IT, marketing, app development, or project management? Or maybe you just want to learn how to create an app (hey, that’ll look sweet on your #resume #workskills).

You can now use these great ideas that were submitted and get involved in designing the app – from the ground up!

To get involved, you can register as an individual or as a team. Ultimately, you’ll be working in groups of three to four people to develop a web/mobile application and showcase it to the judges. Oh, and you can also win a lot of money:

$2000 for the winning team of the Hack-a-thon

$1000 for the runner-up team of the Hack-a-thon

$500 for best UI design

So, how’s this all going to work? We throw open the doors to the Gold Coast Library at 9am Saturday 29 April and you have 30 hours to work on the app and enjoy life! And, we are totally feeding you as well so register now and just tell everyone you were there to build an app.

Are you a totally tech savvy student? Maybe you’re involved in IT, marketing, app development, or project management? Or maybe you just want to learn how to create an app (hey, that’ll look sweet on your #resume #workskills).

We’re building a few apps and we want to get our super talented students involved in designing the app – from the ground up!

To get involved, you can register as an individual or as a team. Ultimately, you’ll be working in groups of three to four people to develop a web/mobile application based on the top 5 app ideas from our app idea competition, and showcase it to the judges. Oh, and you can also win a lot of money:

$2000 for the winning team of the Hack-a-thon

$1000 for the runner-up team of the Hack-a-thon

$500 for best UI design

So, how’s this all going to work? We throw open the doors to the Gold Coast Library at 9am Saturday 29 April and you have 30 hours to work on the app and enjoy life! And, we are totally feeding you as well so register now and just tell everyone you were there to build an app.

The first-ever Griffith University Student Hack-a-thon is getting closer!

It’s going to be held on 29-30 April at our Gold Coast campus library (that’s only three weeks away people!). So we need to get cracking and find our teams of student hackers.

Are you keen? If you want to develop and showcase a web/mobile application and potentially WIN a stash of cash (in the form of a pre-paid Visa Card) you need to head on over to the Hack-a-thon web page.

Okay, all you creative and entrepreneurial Griffith students, it’s time to put your thinking caps on. We have an important question we’d like you to answer, and time is running out.

What app would greatly improve your life as a student? Submit your awesome app idea by Friday 31 March and you could win $1500. That’s right, a whopping $1500 just for an idea.

The catch is – the idea has to be brilliant and impress our hard to impress judges. Your idea will have to be the best of the best.

But don’t worry, there’s more than one prize. Second place is still quite lucrative with $750 up for grabs, and third place will receive a respectable $500.

Concerned about your lack of coding skills? Don’t be. You don’t actually have to build it, or do anything remotely techy. You just need to brainstorm a brilliant app, go to the Hack-a-thon web page, and submit it. Easy peasy and potentially very profitable.

Quick, get your entries in today (yes, plural. You can enter as many times as you like). Entries close at 5pm on Friday. Winners will be contacted and announced via Library social media.

But that’s not it. What good is an idea without some action? Once the ideas have been collected and winners have been chosen, there will be Student Hack-a-thon event.

That’s when we give your app ideas to a bunch of clever students (with coding skills), feed them some pizza, and get them to develop an app in two-days. Head to the Hack-a-thon webpage for details.

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